A golfing year like no other comes to its conclusion with a unique Women’s US Open in Texas, where the emphasis will be very much on youth.
Promising British amateur Lily May Humphreys is just 18 and will make her major debut when she tees it up with the world’s best at the Champions Golf Club in Houston and there will be three 17 year olds in the field.
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This year’s event, the 75th edition, was originally scheduled for June. It is considered the most important women’s golf tournament and is being played in December for the first time.
Uniquely, the first two rounds will be on different courses at the same complex. The famed Cypress Creek layout should have been the only stage but because of shortened days the neighbouring Jackrabbit course is also being used.
This will help ensure a championship boasting its usual 156-strong field will be completed on time. Another alteration from the norm, due to the coronavirus lockdown, is that there was no qualifying process with the entire field exempt.
Humphreys is there through being ranked 17 in the amateur world standings, with the top 20 eligible. It means 23-year-old number 18 Olivia Mehaffey, from Northern Ireland, is also competing.
Both players typify the youthful feel currently evident in the women’s game. American 43-year-olds Cristie Kerr and Angela Stanford are the oldest players on the entry list.
Kerr is battling injury after a freak cart accident took her out of last week’s LPGA Volunteers of America Classic. Should she pull out, the average age of the field, currently just over 26, will fall further.
There are no fewer than 21 players who are 20 or younger and just a dozen aged 35 or over.
Humphreys, from the Stoke by Nayland Golf Club on the Essex-Suffolk border is determined to make the most of her opportunity. “I just want to go, enjoy the week, learn new things and start off trying to make the cut,” she told England Golf.
Whatever happens when the competitive action gets underway, Humphreys has already taken steps to ensure a memorable time in the company of some of the game’s biggest names.
“The practice sheet went live one night at about 1am UK time a few weeks ago,” she revealed. “Myself and my mum stayed up to make sure I was near the front of the queue for booking times.
“I wanted to take advantage of everything that goes along with being part of such a huge event – including practice days.
“I was able to book times with Stacy Lewis and Mel Reid, Jessica and Nelly Korda and Lexi Thompson.”
Quite rightly, Humphreys, who was recently named in the initial Great Britain and Ireland squad for the 2021 Curtis Cup against the United States, wants to measure herself against the best players in the world.
“I have a chance to get close to them, watch how they play and prepare.,” she said. “For me as an amateur, that’s priceless.
“I want to see just what level they are at and what I need to do to eventually join them at that point. There was no point being shy about it, I just had to make the most of this opportunity.”
She is competing in the strongest field of the year. It includes defending champion Jeongeun Lee6 and world number one Jin Young Ko – two members of a formidable 27-strong contingent of Korean competitors.
Europe’s challenge is spearheaded by the in-form Dane Emily Pedersen, who in November won the last three events of the Ladies European Tour season to claim the money list title.
There is also room for British optimism because there have been stirring LPGA victories for Georgia Hall and Reid since lockdown ended while Charley Hull hit form, finishing only four shots behind Stanford last Sunday.
“My game’s in good shape and I’m well satisfied,” the 24-year-old from Kettering said after coming sixth. “I played in Europe in the couple of weeks before coming back to the States and finished fifth and sixth, so I am playing pretty well.
“It’s been a crazy year, though, having had Covid and everything. I’ve only played six events on the LPGA Tour and feel I’m only just now getting really into it.”
Hull believes the sterner test expected this week will suit her game and temperament.
It is still too soon to say that she is under-achieving, having posted only three tour wins in her career to date. But Hull – with six major top-10’s to her name – is entitled to feel a little impatient.
Especially with the constant stream of young talent flowing into the game and with so much of it on show in Texas this week.
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